R & S Records has already released two vinyl samplers from their upcoming two CD compilation, which is out in a few days. The first CD includes classics such as Beltram’s ‘Energy Flash’, ‘Plastic Dreams’ by Jaydee and a lot more. All the tracks on the first disc are ones that R & S released on vinyl all the way back from 1991 and earlier.

If you are a CD dj it’s nice to have most of the classic tracks from R & S’ catalogue in a digital format and mastered for CD, and it’s a good chance to catch up on some great tunes if you haven’t followed R & S’ releases over the years.

The second disc contains remixes on some of the tracks on the first CD plus a remix on Sonic Solution – ‘Music’. This is of course not a new approach on compilations, but a very thoughtful idea and very good in theory.

Although I must contradict in reality.

As for the selection of remix artists it seems very good when you look solely at the tracklist, but only Audion’s remix of ‘Plastic Dreams’ and Redshape’s take on ‘Mentasm’ gets my feet moving. Selecting Hervé, Boys Noize and Paul Woolford as remixers on three of the tracks just seems as a part of the plan to sell a few more copies. Although their takes on the tracks are very well what you would expect from them and they shouldn’t dissapoint fans of them respectively. I must say I would rather see more fitting remixers that doesn’t feel so absent from R & S Records wall-of-sound and previous records. Prins Thomas as a remixer is a quite of a long shot for a label that releases mainly house and techno and they should get credit for at least trying to do something different, but still they only get the job half-done.

The first CD can only get 5 out of 5 because of all the classics, but if you are into getting the remixes I would recommend the vinyl samplers instead or buying separate tracks on either Boomkat or Beatport.